This invention relates generally to an electronic packaging assembly including a box and a support therefor and, more particularly, to such an assembly in which a connector member on the rear of the box is mated with a connector member at the rear of the support with zero insertion force.
It is common practice in aircraft to mount avionics "black boxes" on shelves with an electrical connector member mounted on the back of each box which engages with a mating connector half mounted on the rear of the shelf when the box is slid fully to the rear of the shelf. The avionics "black box" contains electronic circuitry and components necessary for controlling the various functions of the aircraft. As aircraft avionics become more complex, the number of wires required to connect the box to the aircraft's wiring increases. The forces required to mate the two connector halves of the connector associated with each box now used in these applications is proportional to the number of contacts. For example, a box having approximately 600 contacts has an insertion or mating force of about 200 lbs. It is therefore desirable that a connector be utilized for this application which has zero insertion force. Connectors of this general type are well known in the art. An example of such a connector is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,594,698 to Anhalt. Such a connector contains fixed contacts in one connector half and movable contacts in the second connector half. An actuating plate is provided in such second connector half, which when shifted, moves the movable contacts into electrical engagement with fixed contacts in the first connector half.
In order to utilize a zero insertion force connector in an aircraft avionic assembly as described hereinabove, there is required some means at the front of the shelf which supports the box to actuate the connector at the rear of the shelf. Reference is made to copending application of Jack E. Langenbach entitled, "Electronic Packaging Assembly," Ser. No. 545,148, filed Jan. 29, 1975, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,977,749, assigned to the assignee of the present application, which shows such an arrangement. In the Langenbach assembly, one connector half containing fixed contacts is mounted at the rear of the box and the mating connector half which contains the movable contacts of the zero insertion force connector is mounted at the rear of the support. An actuating arm is provided at the front of the support for moving the movable contacts in tandem in the connector member at the rear of the support to engage the fixed contacts in the connector member at the rear of the box. The contact actuating means also includes means for positively latching the box to prevent the box from lifting off of the support. While such an arrangement is entirely satisfactory in operation, the aircraft industry has recently expressed a desire that the actuating mechanism and the movable contacts be mounted on the box, rather than on the support as in the Langenbach arrangement. The reason for this modification is that occasionally the actuating mechanism and the connector half containing the movable contacts require repair or servicing, which may be more easily performed by removing the box from the aircraft and working on the box in a shop rather than working on such mechanisms if they are permanently installed on an aircraft. Furthermore, any servicing of an aircraft on the ground results in lost flight time and, therefore, loss of revenues. An electronic packaging assembly having movable contacts and actuating mechanism therefor on the box has been demonstrated. However, in such assembly, the actuating mechanism for the movable contacts was mounted on the outside of the box. Such an arrangement has the disadvantage that the actuating mechanism may become damaged during handling of the box and makes handling of the box by a technician awkward. Furthermore, the mechanism in the unit which has been demonstrated was complex and costly. Therefore, it would be desirable and constitutes one of the objects of the present invention to provide an electronic packaging assembly for an avionics box in which the actuating mechanism for the movable contacts mounted at the rear of the box extends through the box, rather than along the sides thereof, and is simple in construction, reliable, and relatively inexpensive.
Reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 3,853,379 to Goodman et al. as relevant prior art in that it discloses an actuated printed circuit board assembly in which the board is inserted into a supporting frame for engagement with an electrical connector with zero insertion force. The movable contacts are mounted on the frame while fixed contacts are mounted on the board. After the board is mounted on the frame, the movable contacts on the frame are cam actuated to make electrical engagement with the associated contacts on the printed circuit board. The actuating mechanism is mounted on the frame adjacent to the front of the board. The actuating mechanism includes a latch for releasably retaining the board in the frame.
Electrical connector assemblies have also been utilized for aircraft applications in which the assemblies contain a plurality of zero insertion force connectors as well as one or more conventional connectors containing fixed contacts, such as mating pin and socket contacts, coaxial contacts, etc. In order to simultaneously actuate the movable contacts in the zero insertion force connectors in such an assembly it has been necessary to mount such connectors adjacent to each other in a row with an actuating cam at one end of the row. The connector containing the fixed contacts had to be mounted at the other end of the row so as not to interfere with the actuation of the movable contacts in the zero insertion force connectors. As a consequence, the arrangement of the two types of connectors in the connector assembly had to be permanent. For some applications, it would be more practical to provide a modular connector assembly in which individual connector modules of different types may be mounted in selected module cavities in the connector shell depending upon the particular electrical interconnection arrangement desired by the user. By the use of a modular connector assembly, the individual modules may be more conveniently wired by removing the modules from the shell and servicing of the connector assembly on the avionics box is simplified. It is another object of the present invention to provide such a modular assembly in which zero insertion force modules may be mounted together with conventional fixed contact connector modules in any desired arrangement in the module cavities in the shell of the assembly and simultaneous actuation of the movable contacts in the zero insertion force modules is accomplished regardless of the position of such modules in the shell. Thus, the modular connector permits a wide diversity in the type of connector modules used, and their locations, in a connector assembly.